In addition to the areas mentioned on the previous pages, other advanced procedures that are the focus of international attention are performed in Japan. Japan is recognized as being in the global top class in various surgical procedures, thanks not only to advances in equipment, but also to the manual dexterity and professional dedication of Japanese surgeons, and their ingenious adjustments to operative procedures. Thanks in part to such adjustments in operative procedures, Japan boasts high survival rates for gastroenterological cancer operations with lymphadenectomies, and doctors have been proactive in operating on even hard-to-treat cases of head and neck cancer . In addi t ion, Japan i s renowned for ha v ing a wea l th of experience and admirable success rates in the areas of bone marrow transplants for cancer s of the blood and l iver transplants for liver cancer. A wide variety of approaches to treating congenital abnormalities are taken as well. in Japan.

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What is lymphadenectomy(surgical removal of lymph nodes) during cancer surgery?

In one of the routes of metastasis, cancer cells metastasize to the lymph nodes through the lymphatic vessels and further spread to distant lymph nodes or other organs. A lymphadenectomy, in which the tumor and surrounding lymph nodes are removed at the same time, is thus thought to be e ective in preventing the recurrence of cancer, and this is a standard surgical procedure for cancer performed in Japan. The ve-year survival rate for Japanese patients with Stage 3 colon cancer who received surgery alone is about 75%, and this survival rate is reported to be about the same as that for American and European patients who received chemotherapy after surgery. Recently, chemotherapy after surgery is also being included in the standard treatment regimen for cancer in Japan, and the ve-year survival rate is tending to improve.